E3 Press Conference Thoughts

[dolson]

So, we've seen all three press conferences. What do you think?

My own thoughts:

Microsoft: Natal could be cool. Shadow Complex - want it, but not enough to buy a 360. The rest of the software lineup was meh for me. Didn't like the first two Halo games, doubt I'd like the others. Alan Wake is not what I was expecting, based on the hype... And the guy's flashlight is always aimed 100% steady, perfectly... What's with that? Metal Gear Solid was a big announcement, but I'll play the PS3 version. Twitter support is cool, so long as it doesn't start flooding my feed with "now I'm playing Game X," "now I'm playing Game Y" and so on. That will get annoying.

Nintendo: Two new Mario games. Not that interested, but they look good. Wii Motion Plus has been a year in wait already, so it was focused on a bit much, I think in response to Microsoft, partly. The demos weren't too great. Ending on Metroid = epic win. I'm buying that Metroid game for sure. No Zelda. No Pikmin. No Icarus. Ah well, it wasn't nearly as bad as last year, and Cammy was tolerable.

Sony: I'm glad they joked around about all of the leaks, especially the PSP go, because if they tried to go on like nobody knew yet, it'd have been stupid. I'm glad UMD isn't going away. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker looks great, and you do get to play as Snake. Assassin's Creed Bloodlines interacting with Assassin's Creed 2 means I've got two games to buy and play this holiday season. The motion control could be great, as long as shooters can and DO use it easily. That's what I want it for the most - I miss that from the Wii (not enough shooters on Wii, ironically). Hopefully it takes off. LittleBigRacer or whatever it is, ModNation, looks ok, but I dunno how much variation you'll see in user-made tracks and such. Final Fantasy XIV Online was a pretty huge announcement. People in the crowd were shocked - I laughed, because nobody expected that. Surprised FFXIII Versus wasn't pimped, nor Heavy Rain nor Ratchet & Clank (though mentioned). FFVII on PSN today will please many people, too. Uncharted 2 looks epic. Overall, I'm really excited about the lineup for both systems. The only problem is finding time to play it all. Speaking of, I should go play some more inFamous now. :)

[thing2]

Microsoft - I liked their approach - no sales figures - slides - or business mumbo-jumbo. You can get that 100 different places - let's just shoot right to the games - I hope the other 2 take note of that approach next year. Odd that you didn't want to play any of the games on the 360 - there was some cool stuff shown. I'm happy with Microsoft's Primary focus - they seem to be focused on the hardcore gaming market - and since that's me - I'll take it!! The Natal thing is pretty neat - it's essentially a glorified tech demo - but hopefully the future will bring something interesting.

Nintendo - Disappointing to me - Nintendo is no longer even *trying* to innovate - they just churn out sequel after sequel with the same Ip's and I'm so - so - so - so tired of Mario games, metroid games, zelda, and all derivatives thereof. Look guys - I know you have a succesful franchise and don't have to really think outside of the box to make money hand over fist - but DAMMIT give us a blockbuster game that isn't a take on something I played in the early 90's. -Ugh- With all the creative talent in the industry nowadays Nintendo is just wasting energy releasing different twists on the same crap. Also the Wii Motion Plus looks neat - but I can't help being angry that I need an attachment just to get my Wii'mote to work the way it should have ALWAYS worked!! Also the pandering to the "generic" girl gamer was nauseating. Def. worst of the 3 for me.

Sony - I understand the audience for these press conferences are varied - but can't they just release a press kit with all the stats and projections and financial crap and save the conference time for games?!?! I lost about an hour and a half of my day just listening to suits drivel on incessantly about figures, projections, and marketing speak. I hope they don't do that next year. But Uncharted 2 looks AMAZING - God of War 3 of course looks nice as well.
Unfortunately what I was really hoping to hear about didn't come up - no PS3 slim announcements - no price cuts....I know they didn't promise these things but I'm still waiting on picking up a PS3 because they're a bit too pricey.

Looking forward to hearing more about all of what was shown.

[az0madman]

Microsoft was leaning on average for me for most of it. I'm excited for Splinter Cell Conviction and Alan Wake and the footage they showed of CoD MW2 was awesome. I don't care too much for Halo but I'm intrigued by how it'll tell this new story. Natal was extremely interesting to me and if it can deliver on it's promises, it'll be a big thing in gaming. Or it might just be "You're in the Movies" all over again.

Nintendo wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. Metroid by Team Ninja was the best news to come out of there. The Super Mario games are more of the same (which isn't a bad thing, but nothing special either) and other than Red Steel and Sports Resort, the Motion Plus doesn't look like it will be this must have addition.

Sony was my favorite, showing off God of War 3, Uncharted 2 and Assassin's Creed 2. PSP line-up looks great and of all the motion controller talk, I enjoyed their tech demo the most. I could actually see real gaming application with it. Not just a new way to play sports games or casual painting games. Disappointed in the announcement of the next Final Fantasy being online. I didn't play XI and if I have to pay a monthly fee for XIV, I won't be playing this one either.

[chrisharris]

of all the motion controller talk, I enjoyed their tech demo the most. I could actually see real gaming application with it. Not just a new way to play sports games or casual painting games

Technology wise, the hardware behind Microsoft's Natal also has the capability to utilize an LED-ball-wand-thing to do all the stuff in the PS3 motion demo. They both use normal cameras. Microsoft's implementation just happens to use two of them for binocular depth perception.

The Playstation Eye isn't stereoscopic and, thus, is limited to determining depth based on the perceptual size of an object of predetermined dimensions and determining its orientation based on the pattern of the LEDs in relation to the camera. With two images taken from predetermined distances/angles, you could determine the position of any object without extra, predetermined information about it.

If Microsoft's system is as accurate and fast as the PS3 motion demo (I don't recall evidence of that), they could potentially do everything Sony can and much more. That said, I'm glad every system is experimenting with new control ideas. I may have every current system (with the exception of the PSP), but a lot of people don't have that option.

EDIT: Something I thought about while writing this is that Microsoft could take the Rainbow Six face mapping to a new level. You could literally scan your face in 3D and match the facial structure of a model to your own. That would be an interesting feature for RPGs. I already try to get the faces as close to my own, anyway. This would just be more accurate and much faster than manually tweaking a bunch of sliders.

[scoobydiesel]

Microsoft: Im with people on Natal being cool and if done right or works well then it will be awesome.
Crackdown 2 is what i was asking for and Im getting it, So i was very happy.
Shadow Complex was a little surprising to me.(i was expecting the horror game i had heard about?)
Left 4 Dead 2 Im not mad about it being too soon or anything i want this.

Nintendo: They didnt do as bad as last year but still the worst of the 3 again. Mario games are awesome and so is Metroid...But whats with that damn Finger deal?

Sony: I think i came away very happy with Sony.
The last guardian is a Must own for me.
Modracers looks really cool to me.
God of War 3 should be fun.
Uncharted 2 is a must buy.
I must say i dont really care for the PSP Go's design and price...But maybe for this coming holiday season i will ask for one?

But i think i will end up buying the rock band unplugged bundle because i want a new PSP honestly. Little Big Planet :D


I have to go with sony as the best of the 3 for me.

[chrisharris]

People are reporting that Microsoft is saying that the device is made up of an RGB camera, a multiarray microphone, a monochrome infrared camera and an infrared projector. In that case, it's likely a time-of-flight system instead of binocular depth perception as I had previously expected. It's basically bouncing infrared light off of the scene and using the infrared camera to detect how long the pulse takes to return. In that case, your lighting situation is unlikely to cause problems. The RGB camera is supposedly for color data and to help with facial recognition.

EDIT: Also, they say that it would work with peripherals/controllers (as expected) but that Microsoft didn't put any in the demo reel because it would go against the mantra of "removing the controller" (which is where they have the advantage) which they wanted to go with for the presentation and avoid potentially confusing some people.

(copy+pasted from a different section of the forums)

[thing2]

Thanks for that Chris - I was trying to figure out the tech. behind the device.

[jay_ray]

I'd rate them as: Sony, Microsoft, then Nintendo.

I thought Sony nailed it for what I wanted to see, MS showed a couple of games I am totally interested in but then showed games that I have no excitement for or only teaser trailers for games I needed to see gameplay of. And Nintendo showed a few cool things, but it was all old IP's that I am feeling I have had enough of that and I want to see some new Nintendo IP's.